Well its December, its winter time, water temps are dropping, recent heavy rains have got the creeks flowing and the lake is on the rise. Most of the upper end of the lake has heavily stained to muddy water, especially around the Creek mouths. Most of the people now fishing the lake will be using the live bait jumbo minnows. We fish these on either a bobber set up, a drop shot set up or a split shot rig. Using live bait will definitely ensure you a better catch rate during these colder winter months. The purists are having their best action throwing six and seven inch swimbaits in the top hook talon bait by Osprey, or the seven inch Huddleston swim bait. These baits require endurance and lot's of patience to stay with and throw them all day long. You may catch four to six fish during a days outing, "If You Are Lucky" but the odds are they will be big ones. The most recent team tournament only drew six teams but the winning team had an amazing 34 lbs for their best five fish. It sounds good but it requires a lot of work and the right equipment to throw these baits. The retrieve on these baits also requires a lot of discipline and you really have to concentrate on a "Very" slow retrieve trying to bump every little rock. With the holiday season and colder weather, boat action on the lake will be very minimal. I had a trip yesterday, we were fogged in for most of the morning but my customers managed to catch 11 bass up to 8lbs but we had to work for them. One side benefit to using the live bait right now is that the catfish are on a tear right now and you can have a really hard fight on a light action bass rod. My customers yesterday landed 13 catfish up to 16lbs while fishing for bass. This will be it for reports until next month, (January 2013) hard to believe the year has gone by that fast. I hope everyone has a wonderful Blessed Christmas Season, God Bless, Bob
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